Navigating ethical and legal responsibilities in AI-driven school leadership: Insights from Kuwaiti principals

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping educational leadership and management, yet little is known about how school principals conceptualize personal ethical and legal responsibilities in AI-driven contexts. Drawing upon ethical leadership theory, UNESCO’s ethical AI framework, and digital transformation literature, this qualitative phenomenological study explores how Kuwaiti public school principals understand and anticipate their responsibilities regarding AI-use in schools. Semistructured interviews with 26 principals across primary, intermediate, and secondary public schools took place. Thematic analysis revealed two interrelated themes: (a) ethical concerns and commitments, including data-privacy, fairness, transparency, academic integrity, and preservation of human judgment; and (b) legal uncertainty and a policy vacuum, characterized by nonexistent formal guidance, liability fears, limited AI literacy, and infrastructural constraints. Principals positioned themselves as moral guardians navigating AI-adoption cautiously in a highly-centralized education system, while calling for culturallyresponsive policies, professional development, and clearer governance frameworks. The study contributes empirically to emerging scholarship on AI-driven school leadership by foregrounding principals’ ethical reasoning in a Gulf Region context and offers implications for leadership preparation, policy development, and responsible AI educational integration